Author: PolitCens

A divided House moved toward passage of Democrats’ expansive social and environment bill on Thursday as new cost estimates from Congress’ top fiscal analyst suggested that moderate lawmakers’ worries about spending and deficits would be calmed, giving the bill the votes it needs for passage.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told lawmakers in a letter Thursday evening that the chamber would soon begin final debate on the sprawling legislation. That would put the House on the doorstep of approving the package, a top priority for President Joe Biden that would bolster child care assistance, create free preschool, curb seniors’ prescription drug costs and beef up efforts to slow climate change. 

“At the close of the debate, all that remains is to take up the vote — so that we can pass this legislation and achieve President Biden’s vision to Build Back Better!” Pelosi wrote, using Biden’s name for the measure.

An initial batch of key figures released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showed that its projections were aligning closely with earlier estimates from the White House. That included tax credits to spur clean energy development, a new required paid family leave program, bolstered child care assistance and caps on seniors’ prescription drug costs.

Two weeks after centrists’ objections forced Democrats to delay the measure, the bill began moving amid optimistic signs from leaders and lawmakers that their divisions were all but resolved — for now. Facing uniform Republican opposition, Democrats can lose no more than three votes to prevail in the House. 

The CBO was expected to estimate that the bill’s overall cost would be modestly higher than the 10-year, $1.85 trillion price tag Democrats have been citing. It was also expected to project the measure would produce deficits of perhaps $200 billion over the coming decade.

Biden and other Democratic leaders have said the measure would pay for itself, largely through tax increases on the wealthy, big corporations and companies doing business abroad. Early signs were that CBO’s numbers were unlikely to derail the legislation, which exceeds 2,100 pages.

“Each of these investments on its own will make an extraordinary impact on the lives of American families,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth of Kentucky, ticking off the bill’s initiatives. Noting that savings would come from higher levies on the rich and corporations, he added, “It’s a helluva deal.” 

Republicans said the legislation would damage an economy racked by inflation, give tax breaks to some wealthy taxpayers and make government bigger and more intrusive. Missouri Rep. Jason Smith, the Budget Committee’s top Republican, used alliteration from Biden’s name for the measure — Build Back Better — to mock it. 

“Bankrupts the economy. Benefits the wealthy. And it builds the Washington machine,” Smith said. 

Biden this week signed a $1 trillion package of highway and other infrastructure projects, which he’s spent recent days promoting around the country. He’s been battered recently by falling approval numbers in polls, reflecting voters’ concerns over inflation, supply chain delays and the persistent coronavirus pandemic. 

After months of talks, lawmakers appeared eager to wrap it up, shelving lingering differences to begin selling the package back home. House Democrats said they were planning 1,000 events across the country by year’s end to pitch the measure’s benefits to voters. 

House passage of the social and environment bill would send it to the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats have zero votes to spare. Significant changes there are likely because of cost-cutting demands by moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. 

Senate talks could take weeks, and the prospect that Manchin or others will force additional cuts in the measure was making it easier for House moderates to back the legislation Thursday. The altered bill would have to return to the House before going to Biden’s desk.

Even as lawmakers debated the legislation, Democrats were set to change it before the House votes to make sure it doesn’t run afoul of Senate rules. Democrats are using special rules that would let the bill pass the Senate by a simple majority, not the usual 60 votes, but such legislation must follow certain budget constraints. 

When moderates delayed House passage of the bill two weeks ago, they said they wanted to make sure the CBO’s projections for its costs were similar to White House numbers, which showed the measure essentially paid for itself. 

Some differences, however, were expected between the CBO and White House estimates. 

A chief discrepancy was expected to be over a White House estimate that giving the IRS an additional $80 billion for stepped-up enforcement would yield $480 billion in new tax collections over a decade, a net gain of $400 billion. The CBO, using stricter estimating guidelines, was expected to envision half that amount in new revenue. 

The House’s addition of a paid family leave program was also expected to increase the legislation’s cost. That program faces objections from Manchin and seems likely to be dropped by the Senate. 

Some moderates have already said projections over IRS savings are always uncertain and would not cause them to oppose the measure. Others have said the measure’s roughly $555 billion in tax credits and other costs to encourage cleaner energy need not be paid for in the bill because global warming is an existential crisis. 

Critics have said the bill’s overall cost would exceed $4 trillion if Democrats hadn’t made temporary some of its programs they would actually like to be permanent. For example, tax credits for children and low-earning workers, top party priorities, are extended for just one year.
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The U.S. Justice Department announced the indictment Thursday of two Iranian nationals for “their involvement in a cyber-enabled campaign to intimidate and influence American voters, and otherwise undermine voter confidence and sow discord, in connection with the 2020 U.S. presidential election,” according to a press release.

Between August and November of 2020, Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian allegedly got voter information from at least one state election website and then used that information to send threatening emails “to intimidate and interfere with voters.”

They also allegedly attempted to access other state election-related websites.

The two also allegedly created and distributed a video “containing disinformation about purported election infrastructure vulnerabilities.”

Additionally, they allegedly “successfully gained unauthorized access to a U.S. media company’s computer network,” which the Justice Department says the two could have used to distribute more disinformation about elections. These plans, according to Justice, were stymied by the FBI and the media entity’s cybersecurity efforts.

“This indictment details how two Iran-based actors waged a targeted, coordinated campaign to erode confidence in the integrity of the U.S. electoral system and to sow discord among Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

“The allegations illustrate how foreign disinformation campaigns operate and seek to influence the American public,” Olsen said in a statement. “The department is committed to exposing and disrupting malign foreign influence efforts using all available tools, including criminal charges.”

Charges against the two include “conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse, intimidate voters, and transmit interstate threats.”

The two indicted were among six sanctioned Thursday by the U.S. Treasury Department, who also allegedly were involved in “attempting to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.”

On Wednesday, the United States and Australia issued an advisory saying Iranian hackers were behind cyberattacks on targets in the health care and transportation sectors.
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The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution to censure a Republican congressman for posting to social media an animated video depicting him striking another member with a sword and attacking President Joe Biden. 

In addition to censure, the resolution calls for removing Congressman Paul Gosar from the House Oversight and Natural Resources committees. 

Gosar shared the video earlier this month, an altered anime clip, a style of Japanese animation, that also included interspersed video of Border Patrol officers and migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Responding to criticism of the post, Gosar issued a statement saying it wasn’t meant to depict violence and was instead “a symbolic portrayal of a fight over immigration policy.” 

In one scene, a character shown with Gosar’s face strikes a character with the face of Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the neck with a sword. 

“In a perfect world, he’d be expelled,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters Tuesday. “We are not in a perfect world, so censure and removal from committee I believe is appropriate.”  

Some Republicans criticized the push by House Democrats to discipline Gosar, hinting at possible consequences for Democrats should Republicans regain a majority in the chamber in the 2022 elections. 

The House approved a measure earlier this year to strip Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments for spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories. 

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

Michelle Wu was sworn in Tuesday as Boston’s first woman and first person of color elected mayor in the city’s long history. 

The swearing-in of the city’s first Asian American mayor came two weeks after Wu won the city’s mayoral election. Before Wu, Boston had elected only white men as mayor. 

“City government is special. We are the level closest to the people, so we must do the big and the small. Every streetlight, every pothole, every park and classroom, lays the foundation for greater change,” Wu said after taking the oath of office.

“After all, Boston was founded on a revolutionary promise: that things don’t have to be as they always have been. That we can chart a new path for families now, and for generations to come, grounded in justice and opportunity,” she said. 

Wu, 36, takes over for a fellow Democrat — former acting Mayor Kim Janey — who was Boston’s first woman and first Black resident to serve in, but who was not elected to, the top post. 

Wu said when she first set foot inside the cavernous Boston City Hall, she felt swallowed up by the maze of concrete hallways, checkpoints and looming counters – all reminders of why her immigrant family tried to steer clear of such spaces. 

But she said her family’s struggles eventually brought her to an internship with former Mayor Thomas Menino and ultimately a seat on the Boston City Council where, she said, she learned the ropes of city government and politics. 

“Today I know City Hall’s passageways and stairwells like my own home,” she said. 

The swearing-in means Wu will now face the daunting task of trying to make good on a slew of ambitious policy proposals that were the backbone of her campaign. 

To push back against soaring housing costs that have forced some former residents out of the city, Wu has promised to pursue rent stabilization or rent control. The biggest hurdle to that proposal is the fact that Massachusetts voters narrowly approved a 1994 ballot question banning rent control statewide. 

Another of Wu’s top campaign promises is to create a “fare-free” public transit system. Wu has said the proposal would strengthen the city’s economy, address climate change and help those who take the bus or subway to school or work. 

Like the rent control pledge, Wu can’t unilaterally do away with fares on the public transit system. Wu has said she would try to work with partners in state government to make each proposal a reality. 

In her comments Tuesday, Wu said it’s crucial to tackle the big challenges she has promised while not losing sight of the nitty-gritty of city government. 

“Not only is it possible for Boston to deliver basic city services and generational change – it is absolutely necessary in this moment,” she said. “We’ll tackle our biggest challenges by getting the small things right.” 

Wu, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan, grew up in Chicago and moved to Boston to attend Harvard University and Harvard Law School. She has two small children. 

Janey made brief comments before Wu was sworn in, thanking the city for the chance to serve as mayor, even for a brief period. 

“I know that Boston is in good hands, and I am so proud to call you Madam Mayor,” Janey said to Wu. 

Janey had been president of the Boston City Council before taking over as mayor, the second of the city’s three mayors this year.

She rose to the top post on an acting basis when the city’s previous elected mayor, Democrat Marty Walsh, stepped down this year to become U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Joe Biden. Janey was sworn in March 24. 

Janey attempted to use the status of the office in her run to replace Walsh, but she failed to garner enough votes to make it past the preliminary mayoral election that whittled the field down to two candidates – City Councilors Wu and Annissa Essaibi George.

Republican Governor Charlie Baker, Democratic U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey and U.S. Represenative Ayanna Pressley attended the swearing-in. 

 
…

Fighting sagging poll ratings, President Joe Biden set out Tuesday on a national tour to persuade everyday Americans of the benefits of his big, just-signed infrastructure plan. First stop: a snowy, rusty bridge in New Hampshire, a state that gave him no love in last year’s presidential primaries. 

Biden left the state in February 2020 before polls had even closed on his fifth-place primary finish. But he returned as president, eager to talk up the billions in investments in upgrading America’s roads, bridges and transit systems that he signed into law Monday.

Walking across the rural New Hampshire bridge that’s been tagged a priority for repairs since 2014, Biden framed the infrastructure law in direct and human terms. He said it would have a meaningful impact here, from efficient everyday transportation to keeping emergency routes open. 

“This isn’t esoteric, this isn’t some gigantic bill — it is, but it’s about what happens to ordinary people,” he said. “Conversations around those kitchen tables that are both profound as they are ordinary: How do I cross the bridge in a snowstorm?” 

Biden hopes to use the successful new law to shift the political winds in his direction and provide fresh momentum for his broader $1.85 trillion social spending package now before Congress. 

The president held a splashy bipartisan bill-signing ceremony Monday for hundreds on the White House South Lawn, where lawmakers and union workers cheered and clapped. 

“America is moving again, and your life is going to change for the better,” Biden promised Americans.

The president and members of his Cabinet are moving, too — spreading out around the country to showcase the package. Biden himself travels Wednesday to Detroit, Michigan, to promote the new law as a source of jobs and repairs for aging roads, bridges, pipes and ports while also helping to ease inflation and supply chain woes.

“As he goes around the country, he’s really going to dig into how these issues will impact people’s everyday lives, what they talk about at their kitchen tables,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. 

Also this week, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan will take a tour through the South, hitting Louisiana and Texas, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will visit Massachusetts, California and the state she represented in Congress, New Mexico, and Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Ohio, among top administration officials on the road. 

The president is pleading for patience from Americans exhausted by the pandemic and concerned about rising inflation. The White House says the infrastructure funding could begin going out within months, and they say it will have a measurable impact on Americans’ lives by helping create new, good-paying jobs. 

During his New Hampshire stop Tuesday, Biden said there were 215 bridges deemed “structurally unsafe” and 700 miles of highway in the state listed in poor condition, which he said costs residents heavily each year in gas and repairs.

In addition to speeding repairs to roads and bridges, Biden touted the law’s investments in upgrading public transit and trains, replacing lead pipes and expanding access to broadband internet. The law, he said, is estimated to create an extra 2 million jobs a year, and he insisted it also would improve supply chain bottlenecks that have contributed to rising prices for consumers by providing funding for America’s ports, airports and freight rail. 

On Tuesday, the president visited a bridge that carries state Route 175 over the Pemigewasset River. Built in 1939, the bridge has been on the state’s “red list” since 2014 because of its poor condition. Another bridge over the river was added in 2018.

“This may not seem like a big bridge, but it saves lives and solves problems,” Biden said. 

New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who planned to greet Biden at the airport, sent a letter to the president Tuesday asking him to work with Congress to earmark even more infrastructure funding for the state. He also urged Biden to address supply chain issues, workforce shortages and the rising cost of construction materials. 

“Ensuring that roads get built, bridges get repaired, and drinking water gets improved will be even more challenging given the economic challenges Washington seems oblivious to,” Sununu said. 

Under the funding formula in the bill, New Hampshire will receive $1.1 billion for federal-aid highways and $225 million for bridges, the White House said.

The infrastructure bill overall contains $110 billion to repair aging highways, bridges and roads. According to the White House, 173,000 total miles or nearly 280,000 kilometers of U.S. highways and major roads and 45,000 bridges are in poor condition. The law has almost $40 billion for bridges, the single largest dedicated bridge investment since the construction of the national highway system, according to the Biden administration. 

Many of the particulars of how the money is spent will be up to state governments. Biden has named former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu as the liaison between the White House and the states to help ensure things run smoothly and to prevent waste and fraud.

 
…

President Joe Biden on Monday signed a trillion-dollar package for infrastructure improvements across the United States that will repair deteriorating roads and bridges, improve rail service, expand public transportation and widen broadband internet service. 

Congressional lawmakers, state governors and city mayors – both Democrats and Republicans – watched Biden’s signing ceremony just outside the White House on a cool, sunny fall afternoon. 

Biden’s signature on one of his key legislative proposals marked a rarity in politically fractious Washington: passage of a major initiative on a bipartisan basis. Nineteen Republicans joined all 50 Democrats to approve the measure in the Senate, while 13 Republicans voted for it in the House of Representatives even as six Democrats opposed it. 

“Democrats and Republicans can come together and produce real results,” Biden said ahead of signing the legislation. “Today, we’re getting it done. America is on the move again.”

Even so, passage of the bill was politically perilous for Republican lawmakers, with some Republican congressional leaders opposed to handing the Democratic president a legislative win when his approval ratings have tumbled in the face of a three-decade-high increase in consumer prices. 

Former President Donald Trump assailed Republican lawmakers who voted for the infrastructure spending even though he also favored new public construction in the country when he was in the White House but was unable to get it through Congress. He said Republicans who voted for Biden’s bill “should be ashamed of themselves.” 

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a vocal Biden opponent, characterized Republicans who favored the legislation as traitors and tweeted out their phone numbers.

Some opponents of the legislation called in death threats to Republican lawmakers who favored it. 

Biden is also in the midst of a protracted debate over his nearly $2 trillion “human infrastructure” legislation that would be the government’s biggest expansion of the social safety net for Americans in five decades. The House is expected to vote on the measure later this week, and, if it is approved, send it to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. 

No Republican congressional lawmakers support the social safety legislation, meaning Democrats will have to approve it on their own. 

The infrastructure bill includes $110 billion in funding for roads, bridges and other major construction projects, along with $39 billion to modernize public transit and make it more accessible to the disabled and elderly. 

The measure includes $50 billion to improve infrastructure against the ravages of climate change and cyberattacks. Another $55 billion will replace old lead pipes still used in some U.S. drinking water systems and $65 billion will develop broadband infrastructure. 

The legislation calls for $21 billion to remove pollution from soil and groundwater, job creation in energy communities, and a focus on economic and environmental justice. The legislation includes $73 billion to update and expand the power grid. 

 
…

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the longest-serving member of the Senate, said Monday he will not seek reelection in 2022 to the seat he has held for eight terms.

Leahy, 81, said he and his wife, Marcelle, have concluded that “it is time to pass the torch to the next Vermonter who will carry on this work for our great state. It’s time to come home.”

The announcement marks the end of a political era. First elected to the Senate in 1974, Leahy is the last of the so-called Watergate babies who were elected after President Richard Nixon’s resignation. During his nearly half-century in the Senate, Vermont shifted from one of the most solidly Republican states in the country to one of its most progressive.

That transition will be critical to Democrats who hope to maintain control of the Senate after next year’s midterm elections. With the chamber evenly divided, the party can’t afford to lose any of its current seats.

Leahy will leave the Senate with a record of promoting human rights, working to ban landmines and protect individual privacy rights. He has been a champion of the environment, especially of Lake Champlain, the body of water that separates northern Vermont from upstate New York.

By retiring and creating the first vacancy in Vermont’s congressional delegation since 2006, Leahy sets up a scramble to succeed him among a number of the state’s up-and-coming politicians.

Matthew Dickinson, a political science professor at Middlebury College, said a likely choice to succeed Leahy would be Democratic Rep. Peter Welch, the state’s lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Dickinson said that Welch’s fundraising is going well and noted that the 74-year-old Welch has enjoyed consistently high approval ratings.

“I think he would be the logical candidate, and that would set up the musical chairs about who replaces him in Congress,” Dickinson said.

It’s uncertain which Republican Party candidates might seek their party’s nomination to run in the November election. It’s unclear whether Phil Scott, the state’s Republican governor who frequently criticized former President Donald Trump and has called for civility in politics, would be interested in running. 

Leahy is chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the senior-most member of both the Senate Judiciary and Agriculture committees.

Earlier this year, Leahy, during his third stint as president pro tem of the Senate, presided over the second impeachment trial of then-President Donald Trump.

In September, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving Republican senator, said he would seek an eighth term in 2022, giving the party more confidence in holding that seat as it fights to overtake the Democrats’ one-vote advantage thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ role as tiebreaker.

Leahy said he was proud of his service to his state and his work to make a difference for residents of Vermont.

“I know I have been there for my state when I was needed most. I know I have taken our best ideas and helped them grow. I brought Vermont’s voice to the United States Senate and Vermont values across the world,” he said. 
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Beto O’Rourke, the former U.S. congressman from Texas whose surprisingly close 2018 loss to Senator Ted Cruz made him a Democratic star, said on Monday he will challenge Republican Greg Abbott in next year’s race for governor of the state.

O’Rourke has been seen as his party’s best option for the 2022 gubernatorial race even after his bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination failed to garner much support amid a crowded field of candidates.

No Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas, the second most populous U.S. state, in three decades. Abbott, who is facing two Republican challengers as well, has amassed an enormous campaign war chest, with more than $55 million as of June.

O’Rourke has spent much of the past year criticizing Abbott for his handling of several crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a fierce winter storm that caused the state’s electric grid to fail and left hundreds of Texans dead.

In an announcement video, O’Rourke blamed the state’s Republican-controlled government for mishandling the storm and argued that it was symptomatic of a larger issue.

“Those in position of public trust have stopped listening to, serving and paying attention to and trusting the people of Texas,” O’Rourke said
…

The White House is setting expectations low ahead of Monday’s virtual meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the evening meeting Washington time will focus on managing the terms of competition between the two rivals but is unlikely to end with resolution of differences.

“The two leaders will discuss ways to responsibly manage the competition” between the two countries “as well as ways to work together where our interests align,” Psaki said in a statement released Friday.

“Throughout, President Biden will make clear U.S. intentions and priorities and be clear and candid about our concerns with the PRC,” Psaki said, referring to Beijing by the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

The U.S. sees China as its strategic competitor, with Beijing seeking to grow its military and economic influence around the world. In the lead-up to the meeting, however, rhetoric from both sides has softened.

In another positive step, U.S. and China, the world’s two biggest CO2 emitters, unexpectedly announced at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, that they would work together to slash emissions and meet regularly to address the climate crisis.

Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at the Hudson Institute, told VOA, “Xi Jinping and President Biden both want to find some stability from which to work to cooperate, where possible, to compete, and even to confront, where necessary. None of that’s going to stop going forward, but I think the tone is going to be better through the Olympics.”

Still, differences over human rights for the people of Hong Kong and Uyghur minorities will likely remain unresolved, as well as issues of trade, freedom of navigation, and Beijing’s military buildup in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

Robert Daly, the director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, told VOA, “We can expect President Biden to say that America still abides by the ‘One China’ policy, and Xi Jinping to say that America has been trampling over that policy.

“So neither leader, as I said, has changed his goals. Each seems to be searching for a formula, the words that will convince the other that all of their own actions are OK. And that is unlikely to happen.”

Ahead of their meeting, the two leaders Friday attended a virtual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, where Xi warned against letting tensions in the region turn into a cold war.

”We should be forward-looking, move ahead and reject practices of discrimination and exclusion of others. Attempts to draw ideological lines or form small circles on geopolitical grounds are bound to fail,” Xi said. He was referring to U.S. efforts to strengthen its partnerships in the region, including the Quad grouping with India, Japan and Australia.

Biden, Xi and leaders of APEC member economies concluded their virtual meeting agreeing on a series of commitments regarding the coronavirus pandemic, economic recovery and climate change mitigation.

Following the meeting chaired by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, leaders adopted a declaration under the theme of “Join, Work, Grow. Together,” which highlights policy actions to respond to COVID-19.

According to organizers, the declaration “lays out commitments in accelerating economic recovery and achieving sustainable and inclusive growth, including further actions in tackling climate change, empowering groups with untapped economic potential, supporting the region’s micro, small and medium enterprises and addressing the digital divide.” 
…

Steve Bannon, a longtime ally to former President Donald Trump, was indicted Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress after he defied a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. 

The Justice Department said Bannon, 67, was indicted on one count for refusing to appear for a deposition and the other for refusing to provide documents in response to the committee’s subpoena. It wasn’t immediately clear when he would be due in court. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the indictment reflects the Justice Department’s “steadfast commitment” to ensuring that the department adheres to the rule of law. 

Each count carries a minimum of 30 days of jail and a sentence of up to a year behind bars. 

Earlier Friday, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, said he would be recommending a contempt vote against former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows after he defied a subpoena and failed to show up for a deposition Friday.

“We’ll probably do several more,” Thompson said at an event in his home state.

The House voted last month to hold Bannon in contempt after he similarly defied a committee subpoena to talk about his role in the attack. Meadows had been in discussions with the committee since his subpoena was issued in September, but his lawyer said Friday that Meadows has a “sharp legal dispute” with the panel as Trump has claimed executive privilege over the testimony.

Thompson had threatened contempt against Meadows in a letter to the lawyer, George Terwilliger, on Thursday, saying that if he failed to appear to answer the committee’s questions on Friday, it would be considered “willful non-compliance.” The committee would first have to vote on the contempt recommendation, then the full House would vote to send it to the Justice Department.

Meadows’ refusal to comply comes amid escalating legal battles between the committee and Trump as the former president has claimed privilege over documents and interviews the lawmakers are demanding.

The White House said in a letter Thursday that President Joe Biden would waive any privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee, prompting his lawyer to say Meadows wouldn’t comply.

“Legal disputes are appropriately resolved by courts,” said Terwilliger, Meadow’s lawyer. “It would be irresponsible for Mr. Meadows to prematurely resolve that dispute by voluntarily waiving privileges that are at the heart of those legal issues.”

As the sitting president, Biden has waived most of Trump’s assertions of privilege over documents. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has backed Biden’s position, noting in one ruling this week that “Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.”

The panel’s proceedings and attempts to gather information have been delayed as Trump appealed Chutkan’s rulings. On Thursday, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked the release of some of the White House records the panel is seeking, giving that court time to consider Trump’s arguments.

Still, the House panel is continuing its work, and lawmakers have interviewed more than 150 witnesses so far as they attempt to build the most comprehensive record yet of how a violent mob of Trump’s supporters broke into the Capitol and temporarily halted the certification of Biden’s victory.

The committee has subpoenaed almost three dozen people, including former White House staffers, Trump allies who strategized about how to overturn his defeat and people who organized the giant rally on the National Mall the morning of January 6. While some, like Meadows and Bannon, have balked, others have spoken to the panel and provided documents.

Meadows, a former GOP congressman from North Carolina, is a key witness for the panel. He was Trump’s top aide in the time between Trump’s loss in the November election and the insurrection and was one of several people who pressured state officials to try and overturn the results. He was also by Trump’s side during much of the time, and he could provide information about what the former president was saying and doing during the attack. 

The appeals court will hear arguments November 30 in Trump’s separate case against the committee and the National Archives, an attempt to withhold documents from the panel. The arguments will take place before three judges nominated by Democratic presidents: Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, nominated by former President Barack Obama, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, an appointee of Biden.

Given the case’s magnitude, whichever side loses before the circuit court is likely to eventually appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

 
…

A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily blocked the release of White House records sought by a U.S. House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, granting — for now — a request from former President Donald Trump.

The administrative injunction issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit effectively bars until the end of this month the release of records that were to be turned over Friday. The appeals court set oral arguments in the case for November 30.

The stay gives the court time to consider arguments in a clash between the former president, whose supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and President Joe Biden and Congress, who have pushed for a thorough investigation of the riot. It delays the House committee from reviewing records that lawmakers say could shed light on the events leading up to the insurrection and Trump’s efforts to delegitimize an election he lost.

The National Archives, which holds the documents, says they include call logs, handwritten notes, and a draft executive order on “election integrity.”

Biden waived executive privilege on the documents. Trump then went to court, arguing that as a former president, he still had the right to exert privilege over the records and that releasing them would damage the presidency in the future.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday rejected those arguments, noting in part, “Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.” She again denied an emergency motion by Trump on Wednesday.

In their emergency filing to the appeals court, Trump’s lawyers wrote that without a stay, Trump would “suffer irreparable harm through the effective denial of a constitutional and statutory right to be fully heard on a serious disagreement between the former and incumbent President.”

The November 30 arguments will take place before three judges nominated by Democratic presidents: Patricia Millett and Robert Wilkins, nominated by former President Barack Obama, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, an appointee of Biden.

Given the case’s magnitude, whichever side loses before the circuit court is likely to eventually appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The White House on Thursday also notified a lawyer for Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, that Biden would waive any executive privilege that would prevent Meadows from cooperating with the committee, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The committee has subpoenaed Meadows and more than two dozen other people as part of its investigation. Meadows’ lawyer, George Terwilliger, issued a statement in response saying Meadows “remains under the instructions of former President Trump to respect long-standing principles of executive privilege.”

“It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict,” Terwilliger said.
…

On his first Veterans Day in office, U.S. President Joe Biden ordered his administration Thursday to provide better medical treatment for veterans exposed to toxic air and to study the diseases they may have contracted while serving overseas. 

For years, American service members were exposed to open-air fire pits during tours of duty in Iraqi and Afghan war zones. Dangerous materials such as electronics, vehicles and human waste were routinely sprayed with jet fuel and set ablaze, spewing toxic fumes and carcinogens into the air. 

For Biden, the directive is personal. He has suggested, without proof, that the cancer that killed his son Beau in 2015 was linked to exposure to burn pits during his military deployment to Iraq. 

“He volunteered to join the National Guard at age 32 because he thought he had an obligation to go,” Biden said at a Service Employees International Union convention in 2019. “And because of exposure to burn pits, in my view, I can’t prove it yet, he came back with stage 4 glioblastoma.”

Biden laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington on Thursday to honor U.S. veterans. In a short address, he said retired veterans and those who are serving now are “the spine of this country.” 

“We’ve asked so much of you for so long,” he said. “Our country is grateful.” 

He urged veterans who are struggling with medical problems or thoughts of suicide to reach out for help. 

The new studies related to toxins will initially center on lung problems suffered by troops exposed to contaminated air and the potential connection to rare respiratory cancers, according to senior White House officials, but will expand as possible links to other ailments are identified.

In August, the Department of Veterans Affairs began processing claims for veterans suffering from asthma, rhinitis and sinusitis based on exposure to the pits. New rules will allow veterans to make claims within 10 years of their service and change what symptoms count and why. 

“Exposure to contaminants and environmental hazards poses a major health concern for veterans of all generations,” the White House said. But it added, “There are also gaps and delays in the scientific evidence demonstrating conclusive links between known exposures and health impacts, leaving many veterans without access to Department of Veterans Affairs benefits and high-quality treatment to address significant health conditions.” 

The White House said it took decades for the government to compensate Vietnam-era veterans for their exposure to Agent Orange.

“For the newest generation of veterans, concerns about burn pits and other exposures continue to mount,” it said. 

Veterans Day in the U.S. is commemorated on November 11 to honor everyone who served in the U.S. armed forces. It originally was called Armistice Day, to mark the end of World War I.
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A federal agency charged with making sure that government employees do not use their positions to influence elections released a scathing report this week, finding that at least 13 senior members of the administration of former President Donald Trump, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, engaged in “willful violation” of the Hatch Act, a federal law limiting their political activities.

The report, released by the Office of Special Counsel, reveals a major problem for the United States when it comes to preventing senior administration officials from misusing their positions for political gain. According to the OSC, the only person in a position to punish Hatch Act violations by the most senior officials in the executive branch is the president.

“Indeed, the 2020 election revealed that, at least with respect to an administration’s senior-most officials, the Hatch Act is only as effective as the White House decides it will be,” the report found. “Where, as happened here, the White House chooses to ignore the Hatch Act’s requirements, then the American public is left with no protection against senior administration officials using their official authority for partisan political gain in violation of the law.”

Ethics laws seen as insufficient

Liz Hempowicz, public policy director for the Project on Government Oversight, an independent good-government group, told VOA the unprosecuted violations revealed in the report go to the heart of what many Americans see as the biggest problem with the country.

“The number one concern for constituents across the board is corruption in government, and even more specifically, corruption in government that is never held accountable,” she said.

Hempowicz decried “violations of an ethics law where the watchdog organization in charge of enforcing the law cannot or will not bring enforcement actions against very high-level individuals who violate the law incredibly publicly.”

Hempowicz continued, “It just goes to some of the main concerns we’ve heard from the public. And it reinforces the idea that these ethics laws that we have to protect the people’s interests are not sufficient.”

Multiple violations

The report lists a large number of violations of the Hatch Act during Trump’s term in office, but much of the report is focused on the months immediately prior to the 2020 presidential election, and particularly to the Republican National Convention (RNC). Trump sparked controversy by deciding to hold the convention, a purely political event typically staged in a large city outside Washington, on the grounds of the White House itself.

The report says that while it may have been a breach of political norms, it was not de facto illegal to hold the RNC at the White House. However, during the convention, the OSC documented individual violations of the law.

During the RNC, Pompeo and then-Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf both appeared in their official capacity in events designed to improve the former president’s chances of reelection. Pompeo, who was on a diplomatic trip to Israel at the time, delivered a livestreamed address to the convention. Wolf prerecorded an official naturalization ceremony, in which immigrants to the United States officially become citizens, for a similar purpose.

Numerous violators

The report lists numerous other senior officials who, on one or more occasions, used appearances made in their official capacity to boost the former president’s reelection campaign.

They include then-Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette; then-Senior Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway; then-Senior Adviser to the President Jared Kushner, who is also Trump’s son-in-law; and then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

Others were then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; then-Senior Adviser to the President for Policy Stephen Miller; then-national security adviser Robert O’Brien, and several others.

As elected officials, neither Trump nor former Vice President Mike Pence was subject to the Hatch Act during his term in office, and therefore broke no rules by campaigning in his capacity as president or vice president.

However, the OSC concluded that the president and vice president knew about the frequent and ongoing violations of the law, pointing out that the agency had briefed the White House multiple times and had sent “an unprecedented 15 warning letters to senior administration officials notifying them that they had violated the Hatch Act.”

Calls for change

The OSC is led by Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner, who was nominated by Trump and confirmed to his position by the then Republican-led Senate in 2017. His office regularly brings enforcement actions against more junior executive branch appointees. However, the agency has long believed that its authority ends with Senate-confirmed members of the administration and people appointed directly by the president.

According to the OSC, the report was issued “to educate employees about Hatch Act-prohibited activities, highlight the enforcement challenges that OSC confronted during its investigations, and deter similar violations in the future.”

In recognition of its inability to effectively enforce the law, the OSC recommended a number of legislative changes. Among other things, the agency is asking Congress to give it the authority to apply monetary penalties to senior administration officials for Hatch Act violations, even after they have left office. The agency also wants the ability to issue regulations related to the Hatch Act, and suggests that Congress determine what areas of the White house complex can be used for political activity.

‘It was egregious’

Experts concerned with good governance and transparency said there was nothing particularly unexpected in the report, but they praised it for drawing attention to the significant gaps in enforcement that allowed the violations to take place in the first place.

“I don’t think there was anything that was surprising,” said Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a group that promotes good government. “We all saw the activity as it occurred. It was egregious.”

Nevertheless, he told VOA, the report is important.

“We have a tendency, as a society, to move on from crises … without going back and following the thread about what the consequences are … and we don’t learn as a result,” said Stier. “The OSC report is a very important look at the need for reform of the basic infrastructure of the way our government operates.”

The OSC and other watchdog agencies like it were set up more than 40 years ago, in the wake of the Watergate scandal that brought down former President Richard Nixon.

“It’s about time that we revisit, in our present world, what we need by way of structure inside government to ensure that we continue to have a first-grade, corruption-free and effective government,” Stier said.
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U.S. President Joe Biden is headed to the eastern port of Baltimore, Maryland, on Wednesday to trumpet his newly approved $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending package that he hopes will improve the efficiency of U.S. dock operations and end the logjam of container ships that are anchored off the U.S. Pacific coast waiting to be unloaded. 

The construction measure is aimed chiefly at repairing the country’s deteriorating roads and bridges and expanding broadband internet service throughout the U.S. But it also includes $17 billion for port infrastructure and waterways and another $25 billion for airports to ease the shipment of consumer goods. 

Biden plans to sign the legislation in the coming days, when key lawmakers return to Washington from a weeklong recess. 

Ahead of Biden’s visit to Baltimore, the White House said, “Port infrastructure and waterway investments will double as an investment in environmental justice in and around port facilities by deploying zero-emission technologies and reducing idling and emissions, which impair air quality in adjacent neighborhoods and communities, often which are historically disadvantaged.” 

It said the new funding was especially needed because some rankings show that no U.S. airports rank among the top 25 worldwide for efficiency or ports in the top 50. 

The dozens of container ships currently anchored off the country’s Pacific coast, waiting for consumer goods shipped from Asian ports to be unloaded, have left many U.S. retailers with dwindling stocks of clothes, household products and vehicles to sell heading into the end-of-the-year holiday gift-giving season. Consumer spending accounts for 70% of the U.S. economy, the world’s largest. 

The U.S. economy has continued to advance from the depths of the turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but with conflicting effects for American workers and shoppers, according to two new reports Wednesday. 

One Labor Department report Wednesday showed that first-time claims for unemployment compensation have now fallen for six straight weeks, down to 267,000 last week, just above the 256,000 total in mid-March 2020, when the coronavirus first swept into the U.S. 

But Labor said in a second report that the consumer price index increased at a three-decade-high pace in October, up at an annualized 6.2% rate. The report indicates this largely results from consumer demand for hard-to-get goods and the supply chain bottleneck at U.S. ports. 

Food shoppers — which is to say, all consumers — have noticed the higher prices in grocery stores, while motorists are facing sharply increased prices at gas pumps and used car prices have jumped as well. 

“We are making progress on our recovery,” Biden said in a statement after release of the two reports. “Jobs are up, wages are up, home values are up, personal debt is down, and unemployment is down. We have more work to do, but there is no question that the economy continues to recover and is in much better shape today than it was a year ago.” 

But he acknowledged the effect of higher consumer prices on American households, a political liability for the president. 

“Inflation hurts Americans’ pocketbooks, and reversing this trend is a top priority for me,” he said. 

Biden blamed higher energy costs and supply chain shortcomings for the higher prices consumers are paying. 

The Baltimore port Biden is visiting is not one of the country’s biggest since it is not located directly on the Atlantic Ocean, with ships having to sail north through the Chesapeake Bay to reach the city. It ranks well behind huge ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, on the country’s Pacific coast, yet still unloaded more than 43 million tons of goods in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic limited shipping throughout the world last year. 

The White House said the infrastructure spending is needed because “decades of neglect and underinvestment in our infrastructure have left the links in our goods movement supply chains struggling to keep up with the rapid and persistent increase in goods movement that the pandemic has generated.”
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Max Cleland, who lost three limbs to a Vietnam War hand grenade blast yet went on to serve as a U.S. senator from Georgia, died on Tuesday. He was 79.

Cleland died at his home in Atlanta from congestive heart failure, his personal assistant Linda Dean told The Associated Press. 

Cleland, a Democrat, served one term in the U.S. Senate, losing a 2002 re-election bid to Republican Saxby Chambliss. He also served as administrator of the U.S. Veterans Administration, as Georgia Secretary of State and as a Georgia state senator.

Cleland was a U.S. Army captain in Vietnam when he lost an arm and two legs while picking up a fallen grenade in 1968. For years, Cleland blamed himself for dropping the grenade, but he learned in 1999 that another soldier had dropped it.

Cleland’s loss in the Senate generated enduring controversy after the Chambliss campaign aired a commercial that displayed images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and questioned Cleland’s commitment to defense and Homeland Security. Sen. John McClain was among those who condemned the move by his fellow Republican.

Cleland also led the United States Veterans Administration, appointed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter and holding the post until 1981. Cleland served in the Georgia Senate from 1971-1975 and was Georgia’s Secretary of State from 1983 until 1996.

“Max Cleland was one of the most remarkable persons I have ever met in my life,” Former Georgia governor and fellow Democrat Roy Barnes said. “His sacrifice and service will long be remembered as best of what it is to be a Georgian and an American. I will miss his laughter and good cheer; his optimism in the face of tragedy and his courage to persevere.”

A native of Lithonia, Cleland suffered grievous injuries on April 8, 1968, near Khe Sanh, as he reached for the grenade he thought had fallen from his belt when he jumped from a helicopter. 

“When my eyes cleared, I looked at my right hand. It was gone. Nothing but a splintered white bone protruded from my shredded elbow,” Cleland wrote in his 1980 memoir, “Strong at the Broken Places.” 

After fellow soldiers made a frantic effort to stop his bleeding and he was helicoptered back to a field hospital, Cleland wrote that he begged a doctor to save one of his legs, but there wasn’t enough left. 

“What poured salt into my wounds was the possible knowledge that it could have been my grenade,” he said in a 1999 interview.

But later that year, former Marine Cpl. David Lloyd, who said he was one of the first to reach Cleland after the explosion, came forward to say he treated another soldier at the scene who was sobbing uncontrollably and saying, “It was my grenade, it was my grenade.”

Before Vietnam, Cleland had been an accomplished college swimmer and basketball player, standing 6-foot-2 and beginning to develop an interest in politics. Returning home a triple-amputee, Cleland recalled being depressed and worried about his future, yet still interested in running for office.

“I sat in my mother and daddy’s living room and took stock in my life,” Cleland said in a 2002 interview. “No job. No hope of a job. No offer of a job. No girlfriend. No apartment. No car. And I said, `This is a great time to run for the state Senate.”’

Nevertheless, he won a state Senate seat, becoming part of a cadre of young senators that included Barnes, the future governor. After a failed 1974 campaign for lieutenant governor and his stint heading the VA, Cleland was elected as Georgia’s Secretary of State in 1982.

A dozen years later, he opted to seek the seat of retiring Sen. Sam Nunn, but served only one term. Polls showed he had been leading in his re-election effort before the devastating Chambliss ad. 

“Accusing me of being soft on homeland defense and Osama bin Laden is the most vicious exploitation of a national tragedy and attempt at character assassination I have ever witnessed,” Cleland said at the time. 

Sen. Jon Ossoff, the first Democrat to hold the seat since Cleland’s defeat, called him “a hero, a patriot, a public servant, and a friend.” 

Cleland later served as a director of the Export-Import Bank, and he was appointed by President Barack Obama to be secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

In his memoir, Cleland said that through crises and defeats, “I have learned that it is possible to become strong at the broken places.”
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Last week’s passage of a major bipartisan infrastructure spending package in the House of Representatives was broadly seen as a victory for President Joe Biden at a time when he desperately needed one.

But unlike some of Biden’s earlier legislative wins, this one is not likely to produce immediate changes in the lives of most Americans.

In the early months of his presidency, Biden was able to secure major stimulus packages that sent cash flowing from the federal government directly into the bank accounts of millions of Americans, many of whom were facing financial struggles due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The infrastructure package, which tacked $550 billion of new spending onto $650 billion that was already budgeted, is not expected to work that way. Its promise of investment in electric-vehicle charging stations, highways, ports, airports, broadband, a smart electrical grid and much more, will play out over years, rather than months, analysts caution.

“People think that since the bill has been passed … that you’re going to start seeing things this week. It’s not so simple,” said K.N. Gunalan, a former president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and a senior vice president with the engineering firm AECOM.

“Procurement on a typical project can take from a few months to a couple of years depending on the magnitude and complexity of the project,” he told VOA. “I want people to be hopeful, but not too anxious, because in order to do it right, these things take a little bit of time.”

‘A generational shift’

Experts said that the fact that it will take years for the full effects of the new investment to be seen shouldn’t obscure the reality that it has the potential to significantly transform the country.

“This is a generational shift in how and what types of projects get invested in,” Joseph Kane, a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, told VOA. “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say, with $550 billion over five years, that this is on par with New Deal-era levels of spending.” 

The New Deal era was marked by a massive wave of government spending on infrastructure and other public projects meant to help bring the United States out of the Great Depression. 

“It’s also important not to overlook, beyond the dollar figures, just what the bill promises to do, which is investing in forward-looking designs and technology for a 21st century vision of infrastructure,” Kane said.

‘Infrastructure decade’ 

In the wake of the bill’s passage and the run-up to a presidential signing ceremony expected when Congress returns from its current recess, there have been many joking references to “infrastructure week” — something the Trump administration touted more than once while trying in vain to get Congress to move on its previous efforts to make a serious investment in infrastructure.

But Michael Hendrix, a senior fellow and director of state and local policy at the Manhattan Institute, said in an interview with VOA that the passage of the bill means that the country needs to transition to a much longer timeline.

“After this bill is signed, infrastructure week will become infrastructure decade,” Hendrix said. “I think we really have to look at a 10-year time horizon to get a bigger sense of the impact here. And even then, just because the spending will come online, and projects will come online, doesn’t mean that they’re going to be finished within that 10-year time horizon.” 

Short-term action 

While nobody ought to expect new bridges to begin going up overnight, there will be some action in the near term — it just won’t be the kind that most people notice..

The legislation approved by Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate gives Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a pot of $16 billion that he will be able to direct to projects with little or no delay. Hendrix, of the Manhattan Institute, said that he expects much of that will go toward funding preliminary studies and planning, to help states and localities begin preparing for when the full funding begins to come through the system. 

Additionally, work could begin more quickly on routine maintenance of existing infrastructure that has been deferred, sometimes for many years, because of lack of funding, Gunalan, the former ASCE president, told VOA.

“I know it’s easier to get excited about new projects, but agencies have been struggling for years to maintain their existing assets in good repair,” he said. “Maintenance of existing assets is probably something that can be done sooner than any new projects can come online.”

Medium term 

A number of major projects that have been in the planning phase — some for years — could begin construction within the next few years, even before the end of Biden’s first term in January 2025. 

“I would suspect in the next four years, we will start to see a lot of major infrastructure projects get under construction — and people will see that construction under way,” said Yonah Freemark, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute in Washington. 

Some of those projects, he said in an interview, include the Gateway Tunnel, a new rail tunnel between New York and New Jersey; replacement of the Brent Spence Bridge, a badly overburdened link between Covington, Kentucky, and Cincinnati; a new rail bridge across the Potomac River connecting Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia; and a continuation of work on high-speed rail networks in California. 

“Americans will see all those projects under construction in the next few years,” said Freemark. “Unfortunately, we won’t see them open anytime soon.”

Biden will still promote the package 

The delay between his signing of the infrastructure bill into law and the beginning of major construction projects will not prevent the president from celebrating its passage. This week, he is expected to begin a series of visits to sites around the country that will benefit from the legislation. 

Biden was vice president when President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, an effort to stimulate the economy with a surge of investment in infrastructure projects. While the act generated significant spending on infrastructure, it took much longer to roll out than the administration expected.

The Obama administration did not make much of an effort to bring Americans’ attention to the Recovery Act’s projects when they did come on line, leading to criticism from fellow Democrats, who saw that as a missed opportunity.

Biden does not appear eager to expose himself to the same criticism. His infrastructure tour will be supplemented by appearances by multiple Cabinet secretaries across the country over the coming weeks and months, reminding voters of the projects that, if not under way, are at least on the way.

Biden’s first stop will be the Port of Baltimore on Wednesday. Backlogs at U.S. ports have been blamed for the current supply-chain problems that have left many goods difficult for Americans to find and have contributed to a sharp rise in inflation. A visit to the port will allow Biden to make the argument to Americans that his administration is taking action to at least begin resolving the problem.
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The different diaspora groups that make up the United States inevitably have fought for representation through the voting process. VOA is profiling a group of emerging politicians with direct ties to Africa who are changing the face of American politics. One is Omar Fateh, whose parents came from Somalia.
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